The Pomoná Kingdom and its Hinterland

Introduction

The archaeological site of Pomoná is located on the coastal plains of eastern Tabasco in México, in what is part of the Middle Usumacinta Region. Pomoná, or Pakbul, as its hieroglyphic name is read, was during the Late Classic Maya Period (ca. A.D. 600-800) the political centre of an important kingdom, which occupied a pivotal place in the western Maya Lowlands. This strategically important placement was not only due to its physical location–in the vicinity of the point in where the Usumacinta River leaves the western mountain ranges to move across the broad coastal plain–but also because it was positioned half-way in between the sphere of influence of two antagonistic political powers of the Late Classic: Calakmul and Palenque (Figure 1).

In effect, the kingdom of Pomoná was situated at a crossroads: it could have potentially controlled movement across the coastal plain, and between the upper and lower stretches of the river. Thus the Pomoná region is an essential one to look at, in terms of communication routes up and down river and along the coastal plain. It is perhaps for this reason that this kingdom was so intensely contested by the Palenque kingdom situated to the west, and the Piedras Negras kingdom, located to the south. To the east, close to the San Pedro River we have the lesser-known kingdoms of Morales/Reforma, which judging by its inscribed monuments was part of the Calakmul hegemon, and probably the still un-located centre known from the hieroglyphic inscriptions as the "Wah-Bird Site". For the latter, recent epigraphic interpretations suggest that the site of Santa Elena may have been the capital of this kingdom (David Stuart, Marc Zender, personal communication, 2001).

From the hieroglyphic inscriptions recorded in Palenque’s Hieroglyphic Stairway we know that Palenque attacked Pomoná in A.D. 659 and in 663, and that the powerful influence from this centre was felt again in A.D. 751. Pomoná suffered another devastating defeat this time at the hands of Piedras Negras and its subsidiary site La Mar (Mathews, 1995). Piedras Negras Stela 12 and La Mar Stela 3 record the capture of several Pomoná lords in A.D. 792 and 794. The strife between Pomoná and Piedras Negras seem to date back to at least the mid sixth century. A recent reinterpretation of Piedras Negras Stela 12 by Stephen Houston suggests that sometime after A.D. 554, Piedras Negras was sacked by Pomoná and coerced into paying tribute (Houston, 2000:101-102). This in turn suggests that Pomoná must have exercised to a degree, control over the territory that was part of the Piedras Negras domain.

Based on the premise that site location and the definition of boundaries between socio-political systems were aspects intrinsically related to the physical landscape, and that tactical factors as defined by Hammond (Hammond, 1975:276-277), were instrumental for the location of the important subsidiary sites of the centre. I saw appropriate to approach the problem of the definition of the territorial extent of the Pomoná kingdom, by focusing on its subsidiary centres in relation to their location in the landscape.

In this context the archaeological site of Panhale acquires particular relevance. Panhale is located on a scarped hill, which lies on the right-hand bank of the Usumacinta River (Figure 2). This place is known as Boca del Cerro. It lies about 10 km south of Pomoná and some 8 km to the west of Tenosique, the political and economic centre of this municipality in the Mexican State of Tabasco. Boca del Cerro as its name suggests constitutes an opening in the scarped limestone hills characteristic of the Upper Usumacinta River Valley Region (Figure 3, shown below).

Descending down the Usumacinta and after sorting the treacherous rapids of San Joseito, one must pass by Panhale en-route to Pomoná. It is precisely at Boca del Cerro that the mighty Usumacinta begins a more sinuous and sluggish course into the Tabasco Coastal plain. Hence, Panhale’s location must have been strategic for controlling access, and monitoring movement back and forth between the Upper Usumacinta and the coastal plain.

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